Got any tips for a holga camera virgin?

Wind, point and click.

Haha yeah, I got that bit :P and believe me I did that for my first roll of film, it’s just that the film is not cheap and I don’t wanna waste it having shots all looking similar or crappy. Any other tips?

Just use it as you would any camera – and pay attention to the results… you’ll learn from them, by trial and error, how you want to use the Holga.

Basically, expect the photos to look like “mistakes” – but interesting ones. Much great art was created by such accidental fiddling… so have fun!

Print that first roll of film. Figure out where your Holga leaks. Tape it up. Your Holga doesn’t leak, you say? Impossssssible!

Beyond that, look at a bunch of double exposure stuff online to try and get an idea for composing it. I’ve found that it’s a bit hit or miss for me. The hits totally make the misses worth it though.

If you like playing with images on the computer, layer a few old digital photographs (if you can, I have no idea) to see what your photography looks like fake double exposed. You probably have a style and that might help you see if your style works well that way.

Single exposure-wise, there are some exciting things you can do. Remember that you are working with larger than normal format film, so you can take some really gorgeous shots. And they can be blown up quite a bit. The bigger film means that in the same shot you can get more detail.

Also, it’s the only way to get a square photo if you have a photography teach who considers cropping “cheating”. Um. And that happens a lot if you take classes on it. From what I hear.

The section called Get yourself a Holga at that link had some great, interesting ideas.

If you are shooting color or if you don’t do your own b&w processing, find a good lab to process your film and create a relationship with them. Don’t just take it to walgreens or cvs or something; if you care about those photos, take them to pros.

take the camera everywhere to go, have it ready to shoot in 2 seconds. Don’t hesitate.
And have fun. (this applies to all photography… only DSLR’s dont fit snug in your jacket pocket :P)

(2nd to printing that film good)

shoot from the hip,dont look into the viewfinder,and shoot into the sun.

Make sure to instruct the folks developing not to correct anything, that it’s supposed to look “weird”.YAY HOLGAS!!!!

Do not holga while drunk. I learnt my lesson. I rolled an extra photo for every one I took :(

Find out how to expose properly. If it is a newer Holga the aperture should be f/11 and f/8, with a shutter speed of 1/100. Go out with a digital camera and find out what kind of light is needed to expose properly at these settings. Then when you use your Holga you will know when lighting conditions are acceptable and when to use the sunny and cloudy settings.

The best part of about Holgas is that there are really no limitations to what you can do, only your imagination. Don’t worry so much about any formality or exposure, etc. Just learn to feel with your Holga and don’t worry too much about whether anything will come out or not. That’s what I did